Ken makes a pledge of new Tramlink route

Marion Dakers is deputy news editor and covers the transport and professional services beat.

Marion Dakers

KEN Livingstone has today promised to extend the Croydon Tramlink if elected mayor of London on 3 May.

Labour’s Livingstone, who has made cutting travel costs a cornerstone of his manifesto, said the “sheer size of the surpluses at Transport for London” will make the extension possible if he returns to City Hall. He claimed TfL had a surplus of £727m in the last financial year, though the transport body has said a large part of this was due to deferred investments in new Piccadilly line trains and delays to Northern and Jubilee line upgrades.

Former transport secretary Lord Adonis, who is campaigning for Livingstone, said the pledge “is demonstrating once more his life-long commitment to cheaper fares and investment in the transport network”.

Croydon trams were reintroduced in 2000 and are run by TfL. A link from Harrington to Crystal Palace has been mooted for years, with Croydon Council holding a public consultation in 2006. Current mayor Boris Johnson funded six new trams last month and has said he will “aim to develop a Tramlink extension to Crystal Palace”.